Motorcycle safety is of great concern, as is all vehicle safety, however, motorcycle riders are not surrounded by the vehicle and are not protected by steel frames, air bags, seat belts, and the like. Much of the effort to date has been expended in assuming that a rider and/or passengers will come into contact with the pavement or another vehicle at high speeds after being ejected from the motorcycle. Consequently, current safety items for motorcycles include protective clothing to reduce abrasions, and sophisticated helmets that protect the skull and cushion the shock of impact.
Others have attempted to improve upon the protective clothing and helmet concept, but these efforts have still retained the fundamental concept that the vehicle occupant will contact an immovable object at high speed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,667--Osuchowski et al. discloses an inflatable crash suit which will inflate upon separation of the rider from the motorcycle. Another improvement to conventional protective clothing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,821--Kim et al., which discloses an inflatable crash suit and gas expansion system.
It would, however, be desirable to reduce the risk of injury to a vehicle occupant by reducing his or her velocity so that contact with the road surface or an object results in less damage. It would also be desirable to remove a vehicle occupant from the immediate vicinity of the vehicle, thereby avoiding contact between the occupant and the object the vehicle strikes, e.g., another vehicle, a tree, etc. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved methods and apparatus for increasing the likelihood that an occupant on a vehicle such as a motorcycle will survive a crash and survive with a lesser degree of injury. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system whereby a vehicle occupant is removed from the vehicle upon the occurrence of a crash and the velocity of the occupant is reduced relative to the velocity of the vehicle prior to the crash.
It is known that parachutes, parawings, airfoils, drag chutes, streamers or other devices attached to a moving object will create drag and reduce their velocity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,323--Lussier discloses a spring ejected drag parachute attached to a bicycle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,186--Stewart et al. discloses a parachute attached to the torso of a person for providing an impedance to a rapidly moving person, animal or vehicle.